Meeting in Physics 202, 25 August 2010 1PM

Present: Kannan Moudgalya, Rajesh Kushalkar, Pradeep Sarin
Abhishek Pawar,Rushabh, Nisarg,Prashant, C.P. Varun

Agenda items were circulated in advance.Discussions/decisions follow under ----


1. Status of procurement of OMAP-L138 processors in quantities of 10-50. Rajesh Kushalkar
---------------------------
a)Marvin semi (Pune) TI sub-contractor - possible source.
a) Bottom-line can they sell us the
bare processors? (10-50)   Our hardware team will develop (starting point = open-hardware 
HawkBoard)
b) possible consultation with them regarding them developing the finished product.
This should be on parallel track, without any dependence on their delivering (Their cost quote
 includes tech. R&D man-hours: ours is a student led project- learning and entrepreneurship 
experience). 


2. Discuss details of procurement of passive components to populate the
   HawkBoard PCB's that are already on order.
    One vendor I spoke with in Lamington Road would only sell in reels of
    10,000. Varun tells me of another vendor who can supply quantities of ~ 100-1000 
   (these are cheap passive components, resistors are typically 2-4 paise/unit)
------------------------------
a) ChipComponents in Lamington Road can sell ~ 100-1000 qty. 
   Possible issues
   with billing/VAT.

2.5 Assign task of finding pin-compatible equivalents of the following - since the parts 
    specified in the HawkBoard BOM are not available:
     1GB (or less) of DDR2 SDRAM (Micron Semi)
     1GB (or  less) of Flash RAM (Micron Semi)
      10/100 Ethernet driver LAN8710AI.
      Availability/power consumption of WL1251A wireless driver as an addition/replacement
      for wired ethernet. I have uploaded an updated version  of the HawkBoard BOM spreadsheet
      to the LCAD wiki - it has a couple of new columns  indicating # parts needed to populate
     5 boards v/s # parts procured/ordered. Please fill these up as
     the parts arrive, so that  we have a complete parts kit to send to the vendor  
-----------------------------
More work needed to determine power consumption + cost/availability: Rushabh
Can design Wired-LCAD and WiFi-LCAD as two separate devices.
Investigate Bluetooth option also.
Pedagogical objective: mesh networking among target users (college)
If one person download CDEEP course-ware, they are able to share it seamlessly. 
Requires software support for mesh networking in OS.


3. Assign task of making up a complete parts kit to populate the HawkBoard  blank PCB's
   as they are fabricated by Orion-EMS. What is the ETA on board fabrication?
------------------------------
  Blank PCB order has not been placed yet since we were not sure of parts availability.
? Payal Mukherjee as co-ordinator
  First step: Rajesh Kushalkar will procure OMAP processor since that is
  the key missing component. ETA: ASAP (~ 1 day)

4. I will provide details on access to Altium PCB/CAD design software in WEL Labs.
-------------------------------
List of ~ 7 people authorized to work on Altium licensed workstations has been given 
to Mrs. Date in WEL. Please contact her. Amol (EE Tech Support) is liaison. 
Account for LCAD to be created.


5. Status of procurement of FreeScale processors and the option of building the LCAD
   around that platform.
   Prof. Kannan will give a brief background on it. Others are requested to research
   availability of open-hardware development around the FreeScale  processor 
   Is something like the HawkBoard available for FreeScale? 
   What is the difficulty level in developing a single-board computer around
   the FreeScale processor from scratch?)
----------------------------------
a) ARMdesigner.cn : possible Chinese source for i.MX51 evaluation board.Rushabh+Abhishek to 
   look at cost + availability of software and documentation.
b) Also a possible supplier in Pune: FreeScale (Bhaskar) Rajesh Kushalkar

6. I had requested that two units of the Ben NanoNote be ordered for benchmarking 
   the ergodynamic  and usability aspects of a small form factor device. 
  Abhishek to provide update on status of order - ETA of the units.
-----------------------------------
One ordered (payment made) waiting for delivery-Abhishek (Payall)

7. LCD:
------------------------------------
 a) Varun investigates Mirasol (Qualcomm) Pradeep Sarin will also follow up with
    Qualcomm directly.
    OMAP-L138 delivers 16-bit video. Need matching LCD + driver.
 b) Abhishek has contacted Mirasol through alibaba. Datasheet obtained.
    Need work on cost and hardware complexity.

For next time:
Investigate battery: SciD from Toshiba
